Gunboat 66 – the ultimate fast cruiser?

[navy davy]

To whom it may concern...20 knots too fast for you? is that clucking sound because you never have gone that fast or that your seamanship is limited ? It is an absolute fact that a gunboat 66 can be single handed. Bad weather? unfurl a storm jib, keep the main tucked away, and make an easy 5 knots . No need to go outside and get wet, stear inside. You don't have to sail a gunboat any faster than 5 knots if you don't want to, at any time ! Gunboats have plenty of stowage for anything you need for crossing oceans, they are not striped down racers. The one in the video was named "gazell" and is now "tiger lilly". There are several videos with gunboats. Check out "slim" or "sugar daddy" "cu cu belle" to name a few. fair winds everyone !

[44'cruisingcat]

Even for CF, this thread contains an incredible amount of absolute drivel.

[four winds]

lol..... 44c, I thought about asking you to point out some of the misinformation. But then I didn't have to look too far to see some utter nonsense that even I can spot.

[daletournier]

I really know very little about big performance cats other than the one brief encounter with a Gunboat.
Sailing between Townsville and Lizard island 2011 I sailed in company with a 55 ft gunboat called Sugar daddy. Sailing in company may not be quite true, as I would leave the anchorage much earlier than him and he would get to the next hours earlier than me. I was doing my 6.5-7knots and my AIS would show him passing me at 18+!!
We had a beer together on the beach at Lizard. The owner and his wife with a south American younger man helping sail her. They loved the boat and found the sailing exllilerating! They were half way through a circumnavigation and didn't lead me to believe they were having trouble sailing the boat.
I would certainly have that boat as my cruising platform.
Cheers Dale.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[beiland]

Originally Posted by Polux

Yes you are right about that but making it a Ferrari makes it hugely expensive and it does not make sense if you don't use it like that. If you have not a crew to control permanently the boat than you don't need to have such a tall mast and smaller sails would be more manageable and probably the reefs would be easier to took and more effective.

There are a WHOLE LOT of performance car owners who would disagree with you on those points. And I venture to guess that over 50% of them NEVER drive their cars to the full potential. They want to own a fast, prestigious, limited production car. Some boat owners want the same. They want a vessel that incorporates the highest technology that exist at the time, or something close to it. Now weather they take it out racing or just cruising down the street (or around the world, or thru the Med, or around the islands) is all another matter.

Yes, it can be expensive to build an all carbon hull with carbon mast and hi-tech sails. But some folks are willing (and capable) of affording it. Are you going to bad mouth a company for providing that product?

That is worse on a cat than on a high performance mono. On a mono if you have too much sail and a big gust comes the boat just heels a lot. A sportive cat like the Gunboat can capsize and that makes a really high performance mono-hull more suitable for cruising than a really high performance catamaran.

So what? One should realize the limitations of any particular vessel, and pay it due respect. Don't carry so much excess sail at questionable times.

The expenses continue in what regards carbon sails and top rigging material, all excellent for top performance but not in what regards low maintenance and high maintenance does not go with the needs of long range cruising.

Actually there are a number of these hi-tech rigging materials and sails that are proving longer-life than older std materials.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by beiland

There are a WHOLE LOT of performance car owners who would disagree with you on those points. And I venture to guess that over 50% of them NEVER drive their cars to the full potential. They want to own a fast, prestigious, limited production car. Some boat owners want the same. They want a vessel that incorporates the highest technology that exist at the time, or something close to it. Now weather they take it out racing or just cruising down the street (or around the world, or thru the Med, or around the islands) is all another matter.

Yes, it can be expensive to build an all carbon hull with carbon mast and hi-tech sails. But some folks are willing (and capable) of affording it. Are you going to bad mouth a company for providing that product?

Yes off course I agree with you but those that want this "They want to own a fast, prestigious, limited production car. Some boat owners want the same. They want a vessel that incorporates the highest technology that exist at the time, or something close to it. " rarely are the same that want a car for travel extensively or a cat to circumnavigate.

I am not bad mouthing a company, I like Gunboats just saying that their public target is the one you pointed above, the same of the maxi high tech performance cruiser maxi yachts, the jet set yacht sailing community and not the high range cruising community, as the title of this thread make suppose. The use given to the boats supports what I say.
[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by beiland

Actually there are a number of these hi-tech rigging materials and sails that are proving longer-life than older std materials.

Yes regarding the hulls but not about the rig or sails.
Let me point out that I don't have nothing against performance cars or performance sailboats being them a cat or a monohull and I sail one.

Just saying that is not the type of boat most would chose to do extensive cruising, for the reasons I had pointed out on this post and others and therefore I think the naming it the ultimate fast cruiser is a bit too far. Sure I would like to sail one the same way I like to drive Ferrari or Sports cars (I own one).
https://www.facebook.com/paulo.perna...8744937599406/

[beiland]

Originally Posted by Polux

... I think the naming it the ultimate fast cruiser is a bit too far.

Perhaps this posting should have been titled "an ultimate fast cruiser' rather than 'the ultimate...'

I simply stayed with the title of the video I introduced the discussion with.

[beiland]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Even for CF, this thread contains an incredible amount of absolute drivel.

I don't know so much about that. It certainly brings out all sorts of comments.

I'm tired of the many folks that want to bad mount the Gunboat concept over a few unfortunate accidents at sea, a Chinese mis-step (that MANY companies have made), and perhaps a lot of envy of not have the money to afford one of these machines.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by beiland

one of these machines.

Ahhhhhhhhh! Good point! "Machines"!!

Many sailors don't want a machine



Sent from a stupid phone that replaces words with weird stuff.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Ahhhhhhhhh! Good point! "Machines"!!

Many sailors don't want a machine
..

A cruising sailboat is a sailing machine plus an habitation. Some are better sailing machines then others, others offer a better habitation, but that is the essence of a cruising sailboat.

Sometimes I hear here people talking about their sailboats as if they were a living thing. Well they are not.

Machine:A device consisting of fixed and moving parts that modifies ... energy and transmits it in a more useful form.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by four winds

lol..... 44c, I thought about asking you to point out some of the misinformation. But then I didn't have to look too far to see some utter nonsense that even I can spot.

There's so much, it would take a huge multi-thousand word post like one of Polux's which I doubt anyone can be bothered reading....

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by beiland

Just because the vessel has that capability does NOT mean you have to utilize it all the time,...simply sail it in a reefed condition when your out cruising. There are a number of 'race boats' that get delivered from place to place, and often with skeleton crews. These guys don't sail the boats all-out during these deliveries, and/or certainly not at night when potential squalls might occur.

Just back off of the accelerator at times. But it is nice to know that your 'Ferrari' has that capability.

A nice marketing concept, but not necessarily true. Look at the loss of the Gunboat 55. The professional crew were delivering the boat with the owner aboard, and they could NOT back off in a frontal passage, leading to the dismasting/abandonment of the boat.

[44'cruisingcat]

Could not? Or chose not to?


I mean, are you really trying to say they COULDN'T put the sails away and run under bare poles?


And do you know exactly why the rig failed?


Or are you just making stuff up, which seems to be standard practise here....

[arsenelupiga]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Could not? Or chose not to?


I mean, are you really trying to say they COULDN'T put the sails away and run under bare poles?


And do you know exactly why the rig failed?


Or are you just making stuff up, which seems to be standard practise here....

this is my observation of people that own fast <whatever>. They feel obliged / under pressure to drive fast. And cant let slower <whatever> to overtake them.

This is not relaxing & is dangerous.

[44'cruisingcat]

Oh ********.